I'm thinking of taking the plunge and installing a SDD drive for a faster boot and transferring all but data there. What would I need to do to have my current HDD become the slave after the image transfer? Thank you, Mindblower!
"For the needy, not the greedy"
Hi Mindblower,
First, use a decent partition manager to clone the boot partition over to your new SSD.
Second, and this is the menial part, you will have to tell all your programs about the new place to store their data, otherwise, they will store it as usual to the main drive, that now being your new SSD.
That second part can take a long time depending on how many programs you have that produce data files you want stored elsewhere.
The third thing is that once your are satisfied that Windows is booting properly from the SSD, you can remove that partition from the HDD and use it for your program data.
That is how I have my computer set up and I'm perfectly happy with it. This type of setup has the side-effect of making backups much easier to manage-- they are generally smaller and you absolutely know where everything is. If your system crashes, it will be a separate event from your data which, to me, is a comforting thought.
An SSD is a phenomenal boost to system performance and is well-worth the upgrade. Once you have everything set up, you will never look back,
Richard
Hi Richard,
I can remember from my youth a TV series called "Blakes7".
A series about a space craft The Liberator", and it's crew.
The "enemy" once captured it and asked the Computer how to fly the craft.
The Computer simply said "One manipulates the controls and the ship reacts accordingly."
I'm wondering if there is a little of that in your answer?
Possibly not as the OP did mention.."after the image transfer" so I guess he knows how to get to that stage.
For us plebs who do find your knowledge posts really easy to follow, can you possibly elaborate on your answer?
Is there a "decent" Partition Manager that you yourself might recommend?
This "menial part".. any hints etc?
"Properly booting" from SSD. I guess that might be obvious, but is it?
Any problems you found and any fixes you did?
I have now several computers but only my Windows10 has the SSD.
I'd love to change one of my other computers to a SSD as the speed up is quite phenomenal during boot and program loading.
Your hints and knowledge are much appreciated.
Hi Colin B,
"For us plebs who do find your knowledge posts really easy to follow, can you possibly elaborate on your answer?"
1. "Is there a "decent" Partition Manager that you yourself might recommend?"
There are a couple I like, but for beginners, I would suggest MiniTool Partition Wizard. It has all the bells and whistles that a newbie might want and it's free. Be sure to make backups before messing around with partitions, though.
2. "This "menial part".. any hints etc?"
The part of this whole endeavor that becomes tedious is that originally, a given program was designed to store its data on the system drive (usually in the Users' directory). In this scenario, we have changed the rules and must educate each program to act differently by changing its normal default storage location. There usually are options within a program's interface to accomplish this.
3. "Properly booting" from SSD. I guess that might be obvious, but is it?
This simply means that Windows is happy booting from the new source and is not giving the User unforeseen problems. In other words, nothing should seem amiss.
4. "Any problems you found and any fixes you did?"
None, other than a normal, very basic learning curve. I have two SSDs and one 3TB HDD installed in this computer:
* One SSD is given up for the operating system.
* The second is used strictly for my gaming addictions.
* The HDD holds everything else from paperclips to locomotives-- audio, video, data, pictures, and DCT information that I can't live without, such as comments, contest information, and so on. I have this drive partitioned for each category.
In total, Windows thinks I have nine drives attached to this computer. That includes a RAMDrive, by the way. Oh, and OneDrive, too!
Hope this helps,
Richard
Moderators
HI Mindblower
It would help if you would do a screenshot of your drives and partitions. I usually use either the Easeus or Aomei partition software.
https://davescomputertips.com/forum/computer-software/computer-change/#p13695
I just did some cloning a few days ago.
I currently have one hdd and would like to add one ssd. The ssd would contain an image of the hdd, so the hdd would only store new downloaded data. I do believe there are some switches to make one drive the master and the other a slave. Do not have partitions or plan on using them. Can someone offer assistance, Mindblower!
"For the needy, not the greedy"
Master/Slave switches are a thing of the past, Mindblower.
You no longer have to think about them.
Moderators
OK Mindblower this is a shot of my drives. The first 2 are SSD's and the next 2 are HDD. I need to know the capacity of you HDD and how much you have used. I will also need to know what capacity your SSD will be.
Richard: I was unaware that master/slave switches are obsolete.
dandl: It's 1 terabyte.
I've not purchased the sdd, and want to know everything prior to spending any cash.
Thanks for the assist, Mindblower!
"For the needy, not the greedy"
Moderators
Ok, I will try to explain. An SSD will no doubt speed up your booting process, but the big drawback is with price and capacity. Most users will just install a SSD and use it as the boot drive, usually from 120GB to 240GB, anything beyond that and the cost will be substantial. I run a 240 and a 120GB in my PC, which is about all I can afford, that is why i only use them as my system boot drives.
Now most SSD's are too small in capacity to just clone a 1TB HDD to, so the HDD will have to be shrunk down in order to clone to the SSD. Or you can save a system image, I would do that no matter, to maybe a external drive and use that to write to your SSD, as long as the image does not exceed the capacity.
Sata drives do not rely on the little pin clip to set Master/Slave, that was for running to 2 Eide/Pata drives in a system.
I was very reluctant to go to a SSD and time will tell if they are as dependable as a HDD, but the boot time is incredible. All I can say is try one and we at DCT will do our best to guide you through the process. Daniel.
I'd like to thank all who shared their comments. After visiting my computer repair shop and checking out the price, have opted to remain with hdd. Figure since my computers are 24/7 and reboots only occur every now and then, I can life with the slower boot time. Thanks once again, Mindblower!
"For the needy, not the greedy"
Moderators
Hi Mindblower
You are welcome.
About the only thing a SSD brings to the table for me is a faster boot time. W10, on a SSD, brings my PC up but all my games are played on either XP, Vista or W7, I hate to run my games in compatibility mode. Glad you made your decision. Daniel.
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